Help: Music Server to DAC Connection Question

optical can go much further than wire without degrading the signal, but at only 8ft, no worries on either part

USB
Cable length between full speed devices is limited to 5 meters. For a low speed device (most DACs) the limit is 3 meters.
As the signal degrades proportional to the length of the cable, a short cable is often recommended.

Toslink
Toslink cables are made of plastic or glass.
The plastic ones are cheaper but have a higher attenuation coefficients (1 dB/m or higher).
Due to the high attenuation, reliable transmission distances were limited to 10 meters, in practice often under 5 meters.
Today companies like Lifatec offers length up to 30 m (98 ft) using APF (All Plastic Fiber) with an attenuation (optical loss) less than 0.15dB/m.

Just to spoil your weekend:
Mini – long Toslink – DAC1
Mini – long USB – Vlink – short Toslink – Dac1
Mini – long USB – Vlink – short coax – Dac1
Mini – short USB – Vlink – long Toslink – Dac1
Mini – short USB – Vlink – long coax – Dac1

Vincent Kars said:

Toslink
Toslink cables are made of plastic or glass.
The plastic ones are cheaper but have a higher attenuation coefficients (1 dB/m or higher).
Due to the high attenuation, reliable transmission distances were limited to 10 meters, in practice often under 5 meters.

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What about MADI optical?

According to http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~felber/DataSheets/AES-EBU/aes10-2003.pdf

A fibre interface should be used as specified according to ISO/IEC 9314-3. It should be a graded-index fibre
with a core diameter of 62,5 nm, nominal cladding diameter of 125 nm and a numerical aperture of 0,275, at a
wavelength of 1300 nm. This specification can provide a range of up to 2 km.

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